The Trainer Trainer
by beka-nee
Summary: Forced to prove herself, Sora Ballentine left home and became an obsessive trainer. Now, she has groomed herself to be powerful! However, when she meets the lazy Rip- both charming and childish- she gets dragged into an adventure that will test them both
1. Prologue

The Trainer Trainer.

Prologue; Looking Back.

I've always had to be the best I could be.

Among my siblings- all boys- I found that I had to do more than _just_ be a girl to be ranked as noteworthy.

I had to be _exceptional_.

Quite quickly I, Sora Ballentine, made a name for myself in my small, little-heard-of hometown, Coal Village- just to the east of Oreburgh, really- because of my grades and spotless, sparkling record.

It was only right that I left home to become a Trainer just after my eldest brother_- well _before my other older brothers- with my tiny little turtwig and the biggest ego and ambition that every twelve-year old could have in this day and age;

I planned to be better than the rest.

I had no intention to be the region Champion whatsoever; I just wanted to travel and have people remember me because I was… good!

Of course… it didn't quite happen that way at first and I must have challenged Roark six or seven times just to train my poor little turtwig!

But I did get better and I developed a habit of what I like to call 'nesting'; where I'd catch a pokemon and then just train and train _and train _for weeks on end until the pokemon in that area were rare because of _us_.

Everybody has their own, special way of doing things. Mine was to keep banging against the whetstone, so to speak, until everything was perfect and we were elite.

I roamed (then paused and roamed some more) through Sinnoh with a purpose. I had no inclination to make friends or sight-see in cities. I missed a lot, I realise now.

But, I was going to be a legend! Legends didn't need to see sunsets, I told myself. Legends turn their backs on sunsets until the day they are ready to submit! Legends watch the sunrise with fierce determination and iron-will! I read that in one of my inspirational books.

But, after a while, even a girl with an iron-will gets lonely.

I suppose that weakness comes from having a big, cuddly family.

Unfortunately.

However! Those thoughts of far-away home only troubled me for a few days because then I got the egg and I played Mother Hen for a few weeks. My birthdays came and went, unimportant for the second time since I left home almost two years ago (only visiting home when I captured a gible near the cycling bridge), and the egg hatched into an adorable hundour that, five months later, would attract the hard-earned interest of someone that would change my life in his stupid, lazy, infuriating…_charming way…_

_That I hated._

_Hated!!_


	2. Chapter 1: Idiot

The Trainer Trainer.

Chapter One; Idiot.

Being a Ballentine meant Sora was not hindered by things like mud.

A girl amongst boys, she was targeted when mud appeared in Coal Village after rain. This, of course, meant the young girl had no qualms in tramping into the marshes to the west of Pastoria City with her houndoom for some good, old-fashioned training.

And also that she had quite an arm when it came to throwing mud.

Wearied by exertion in the marshes, Sora and her houndoom wandered along a fairly solid mud path flanked by drooping, mud-caked trees and sodden from the most recent downpour.

Training on Route 212 was genius, Sora grinned to herself, watching the stormy clouds rolling overhead with the female houndoom panting happily at her side, loping easily despite the entire days length spent drenched by rain. Her black flanks were steaming as her naturally high body temperature evaporated the rainwater from her fur after the latest, rather heavy downpour.

Pastoria City was renowned for its rainfall and houndoom- or 'Nixie' as Sora had taken to calling her- had needed beefing-up against water. Nixie, bred from a pedigree line of Houndoom, already had a very high threshold for pain when it came to water, but Sora liked to push her a little sometimes. Just to test her limits.

Like with all of her pokemon, really.

Nixie abruptly tugged on the sleeve of Sora's khaki anorak insistently before bowing her front paws, and wiggling her tail and hind quarters in a way Sora had read was an initiation for play in canine pokemon.

Sora laughed unintentionally, quickly smothering herself with both hands.

They were in the marshes to train! Not-

But Nixie had spotted the grin Sora wore, and was bouncing and leaping around like she was a pup again, barking little sparks of flame as Sora finally gave in and shrugged off her pack.

Nixie had a specific little toy that Sora had bought her in a moment of girlish, motherly weakness when Nixie was still a pup. It was a squeaky meowth toy and Nixie adored it. So much so, in fact, that Sora's other, older pokemon would often sneak it out of her rucksack and give it to Nixie when nobody would play with her.

Nixie was very much treated like the baby of the group, Sora chuckled, rooting through the main section of her pack.

Someone clearing their throat made Sora pause, just as the tips of her fingers brushed the ear of the toy.

Nixie span around with a roar, startling the stranger. If he'd known Nixie as Sora did, he would have known her reaction was out of surprise and fright. Not aggression.

Nevertheless, he took an alarmed step back, raising large hands in a placating gesture.

Despite being on her knees, with her hands inside her pack, Sora still looked dangerous. Especially with the evidence of her capability snarling and rumbling threats at him from a few feet away.

Obviously large, honey-brown eyes were narrowed in suspicion at him, a slender raised brow visible even under the hood of the anorak. Wisps of her honey-flower purple hair flirted at the edges of the hood and the shadow these things caused across her face emphasised how pale she was.

Like milk, he thought vaguely.

She was a tiny thing-he could tell from the delicacy of her pale neck- with almost too-large features. Her eyes dominated her face with long, thick lashes and her tiny nose off-set her pout of a mouth in a quirky way that he liked.

He liked how she looked; as if she were a baby doll that would kill him.

He smirked.

The Cheshire grin caught her attention. It was a very wide, pearly smile that only hinted mischief and would have made her mother swoon once upon a time.

Sora found herself immediately disliking it.

The stranger- and older boy- was tall, far more than twice the size of her from her place kneeling on the mud path ten feet away. He had jet black, stylishly messy hair that fell into his equally black eyes, obscuring some of his tanned face, only for him to shake it out like a luxray mane. He was what her brother's would call a 'pretty boy'.

He had broad shoulders and a narrow waist and- _completely_ the _wrong _attire to wear in the marshes; low-slung black jeans, a remarkably spotless white t-shirt and some deck shoes.

Idiot.

Still smirking, he adopted a cocky pose that intrigued Sora; he crossed his arms over his chest and lifted his chin somewhat in a challenge.

"Wanna battle?"

Idiot or not, Sora told herself, older people mean stronger pokemon. And that means a challenge for Nixie.

He watched her rise, swiping her hood away easily to reveal a battle-thirsty half-smile and hair that was styled so that two long locks of hair hung in front of her almost-elfin ears, while the rest was trimmed short so that it curled into a single flick at the nape of her neck. A sweet, messy fringe covered her forehead , and the boy bit the inside of his cheek as she smirked impishly at him.

Now _that_ was adorable.

"I'm Rip." He felt inclined to tell her, partly disappointed that the anorak was so long and even covered her ankles.

"Sora Ballentine." She told him proudly, lifting her chin in an obvious imitation of his earlier actions.

He grinned.

"Corphish! Go! Use Bubblebeam!"

"Now! Nixie use Crunch!"

As Nixie raced forward to meet the Corphish when it appeared, Sora geared herself for a worthy battle. Obviously this Rip character was a foreign trainer and had come to Sinnoh for a challenge! How inspiring! Sora squealed to herself. Maybe she'd found her perfect travelling companion? A teacher, perhaps? _Oh! _How she envied him-

The Corphish fainted.

Nixie let it drop from her jaws.

One attack.

A minute passed in which Nixie returned to a dumb-struck Sora's side and a _pouting_ Rip recalled the unconscious water-type.

Finally, after what seemed like a very long and revealing few minutes, Sora shut her gaping mouth and stuttered out a few disbelieving sounds. Then, she pointed at Rip accusingly.

"What was that?!" She demanded heatedly.

"Oi!" He puffed his cheeks out childishly. "It's not my fault I've been too busy to train!"

"Too busy with what?!" Sora was dumbstruck.

It seemed simple enough to her! If you were a trainer that meant you trained!

Oh! Sora though suddenly, What if he had a sick family member and he'd been tending to them and had used his pokemon to collect medicines and healing herbs and-

"Girls, I guess." He beamed, flashing her a wink.

Another moment of silence passed in which the sound of a far-off whistle of wind could be heard as they merely stared at each other.

"You're an idiot." The fourteen-year-old finally droned.

"Uwahhhhh!!!" He pouted, giving her a cutesy look that wouldn't look unusual on a cleffa. It creeped her out. "Sooorrraaaaaa! How can a cute girl act so cold?"

Sora's cheeks flushed pink and she glared at him.

Nobody had ever called her 'cute' before. But this guy was definitely just teasing her. Idiot.

"How old are you?" Sore exclaimed, exasperated. " Act your age, idiot!"

He pushed his lips out in a fish-like pout and Sora rolled her eyes.. Nixie just watched them, her head going back and forth as she watch them banter. She seemed intrigued by how easily the interaction between the two had so drastically changed.

"Foo." He waved a hand in dismissal, performing a strange little wiggle- almost like a wurmple. "I'm seventeen, but that doesn't matter. What does matter if that you are strong."

"So what?" Sora asked suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at him again, adding in an undertone, "You are far too friendly with strangers."

"Sooooo," He sang, ignoring her last jibe, and mincing over to her, beaming with an oddly predatory twinkle in his eye. "That means you can teach _moi, the 'idiot', right?"_

_At some point, he'd leant down so that his face loomed above hers and their noses brushed._

_Sora glared and punched him in the head._

"_Fine." She acquiesced, watching him rub his head pitifully as he sat on his haunches in front of her. "But only because it's embarrassing for all trainer's that you're so unskilled."_

"_Boo." Rip mumbled. "You're mean, Sora."_

"_Oi!" She copied his pose from earlier, puffing her cheeks out and making him laugh. "It's Ballentine while I'm your teacher, got it?"_

_He seemed to radiate excitement as he grinned at her lecherously._

"_I think I love Teacher Ballentine, y'know." He sidled closer to her with that mischievous grin._

"_Shut up!" she sighed, realising quite quickly that this may just have been a bad idea._

_Poking him in the forehead, as her elder brother often did to her when she was a nuisance, Sora stood and pet Nixie's flank before starting off towards the massive wooden structure erected at the entrance to Route 212. Built not long ago to guide lost trainers, there were croagunk pictures and poems carved all over its surface- Crasher Wake's doing. _

"_Where are you going?" Rip called after a moment or two. He hadn't moved from the ground, but Nixie was faithfully at her side, as always._

"_Towards the city." She said, as if it weren't obvious._

"_NO!" He suddenly leapt to his feet and, in two strides, was barring her way with his stupid long arms and stupid long legs, his face upturned stubbornly._

_She gave him an "are you serious?" look before sighing._

"_Okay, okay. Why can't we go?" Sora hated how she very-much sounded like her mother, and grimaced._

"_There's an evil shaman who turned that wooden thing into a portal into a world where the people want to eat you." He said it with such honest solemnity that Sora had to struggle to remain stoic… instead of bursting into laughter and probably hurting his stupid feelings. _

_He looked down at her then, widening his eyes to emphasise how completely honest he was being._

"_Who told you that, Rip?"_

_Suddenly he grabbed her into a bone-crushing hug, making a sound of delight._

"_You said my name." he poked his tongue out through his perfect teeth and Sora glowered up at him once he let her down. Then his face transformed into that of the Rip she'd thought she had met at first- before the battle. "We should hug more. Right, Ballentine?"_

_It was then that Sora realised he possibly has a split personality, and she wasn't sure which to be annoyed by more; he was either a stupid child, or a stupid boy. Neither of which she had any fondness for after growing up with five bratty Ballentine brothers. _

"_We're going through it. Stop being an idiot." Sora didn't think she'd ever called anyone an idiot this much in her life before. Except, perhaps, herself when a training technique didn't work. But that was rare._

"_Then!" Rip announced, turning to face the wooden gateway in the distance like some sort of hero. "I will protect us!"_

"_With what?" Sora pointed out sarcastically. "Your Corphish?" _

_Rip visibly slumped and Sora stifled her laughter, feeling genuinely sorry for her quip, but finding a sad Rip to be a very sweet Rip._

"_You're such an idiot." She found herself saying it surprisingly fondly this time and he perked up instantly, sliding her a smooth smirk. She instantly glared. "Don't start that again." _

_He actually laughed, following after her without a word as she stormed ahead, making it apparent that it was all just a ploy to get her to stop and let him hug her. _

_What was she supposed to do with him if he pulled stunts like that? She couldn't possible stop him being so lazy about pokemon if she couldn't snap him out of his lecherous ways._

_Ignoring his sniggering behind her, Sora pushed all thoughts of how strangely familiar they'd become out of her mind, and instead focused her attention on the looming gateway ahead._

_But… how was she supposed to train a trainer?_

_****_

_Reviews would be lovely byuu byuu haha._

_Sora and Rip's inexplicable banter is weird, isn't it? Well, hopefully it'll be hinted at in the next chapter._

_And, I know… there is only one pokemon mentioned at length. Nixie is going to be quite important to the developing relationship between the two later on ^.^_

_Mwah!!_

_x_


End file.
